Senior Compainon

Elder Shelley is Senior companion. He is really liking Elder Clinkscales.  Elder Clinkscales is 23 years old and from Thomasville, Georgia.  Both of the elders were in the MTC at the same time but because Elder Shelley knows the area and can drive, so he is the senior companion.  A lot of the other Elders in the area were transferred.  He is sad to see them all go.
This weekend was very hard. The ward had some very hard times. Elder Shelley found out that a 17 year old in the ward killed himself.  One of the sisters in the ward mother was very ill on the way to go see her.  She had a seizure while driving and was in a bad wreak that totaled the car. Before she made it to see her mother, she passed away.  An elderly man in the ward also passed away.  A girl that they are teaching who is pregnant with twins lost one of the babies.  He said that it all happened on Friday and Sat.  He is hoping for a better week this week.

Transfer Day

Elder Shelley will be staying in Grants Pass but will be getting a new companion his name is Elder Clinkscale. Elder Aragon was transferred to Springfield. Elder Shelley is a little frustrated. They have been trying to find a lot of new people this week but nothing seems to be working. They probably tracked about 18-20 hours this week, so a lot of walking and biking.

Elder Shelley has had fun this week.  He has played horse shoes, hacky sack, ultimate Frisbee, disk golf, and basketball.  He said that he is getting much better at these game because they play them so much in Oregon.  He can't wait to get home and teach us.

The Phone Call

Elder Shelley got to call home on Saturday May 11, we were having Beckham(his nephew) Birthday party so he was able to tell him happy birthday...It was so good to hear his voice. He will be calling us on Sunday at 3 and we will get to talk to him for an hour and a half.

Mother's Day phone call was bitter sweet.  It was good to hear from him, don't get me wrong but on the same note it made me miss him even more.

It was so good to talk to him, to hear his voice and to know that he is loving what he is doing.  He loves the people in Grants Pass.  He said that he has learned so much and grown up a lot.  He told me that he even makes his bed everyday (that is the only thing that we fought about when he was home and just so you know he has been gone for 2 months and I still can't make his bed.)  

With as much time as we got to talk to him each of us got to have some one on one time with him and then we put him on speaker phone and finished up the time.

It was the best Mother's Day gift I could ask for. 

The View from Elder Shelley's Apartment

Cinco de Mayo

So I sent Elder Shelley a cinco de mayo package and in it I put a bottle of homemade salsa which made him a little home sick. They were invited to a family's house and had a great dinner. They had gorditoes with beans, carne asada, queso and spicy fresh salsa. They were awesome.

It has been getting hotter and Elder Shelley is having a hard time sleeping because of the heat. One of the members in the ward had an extra fan and gave it to them. He sleep a lot better last night.

One of the investigators that they are teaching made a comment that made Atticus laugh he said " that we are all winners because we won the first race in life, against thousands of other sperm we were the one that reached the end first." That's what his mom used to tell him when he was younger.

Elder Shelley told me that if I know of any one that is going to Oregon on their mission to get them a care package that has a mask because of the weeds, chew toys to distract the dogs, shin guards because of the little dogs, he has been bit three times on the shins and some how not kicked one of them, a lifting belt to help all of the people move, some rain gear, a hacky sack, and a disk golf Frisbee.

They really enjoyed the temple. He said that it is a small temple but beautiful.

He is so thankful for all of us. He is experiencing a lot of crazy things in Oregon.

Saturday he will be calling us to setup a time to call on Mother's Day. We can't wait to hear from him.